Stolen Robes
by TheSummerNightingale
Summary: "Katie Bell hadn't meant to do it. She really hadn't. It was just that they had been so muddy and looked in need of a good cleaning that, well, she'd plucked them off the bench and put them into her bag. And just like that, Katie stole Oliver Wood's Quidditch robes."


**My first attempt (actually, that's a lie, I've _attempted_ before, but have never been pleased with the results) at KBOW! I really do love this pairing, so I'm trying to get the hang of writing it. :)**

**Written for Hogwarts** -_ **Potions, Assignment 8: **Write about someone doing something forbidden._

**Hope you all enjoy it!**

**xo Summer**

* * *

><p>Katie Bell hadn't meant to do it. She really hadn't.<p>

It was just that they had been so _muddy_ and sopping _wet_ and cold and stinky and looked so in need of a good cleaning that, well, she'd plucked them off the bench that they were unceremoniously dropped on and attempted to _Scourgify _them like she had her own robes, which she wore comfortably now that they were warm and dry.

But when Oliver's were dried and cleaned and hadn't a speck of dirt on them, there was still the smell, and that was when Katie had impulsively stuffed the Quidditch robes into her bag and strolled out of the boys' locker rooms with Oliver Wood's robes swinging by her side.

She really hadn't _meant_ to steal them. It just sort of… happened.

It was about midway from the Castle to the locker rooms when she realized what she'd done - stolen _Oliver Wood's_ clothes; what kind of person _did _that? - and rushed back, only to find Cedric Diggory walking out of the locker rooms, apparently just having showered.

"Hi, Bell," he said with a most charming grin after his initial surprise at seeing her just about to barge into the guys' rooms. "What's up?"

Well, of course she could not tell him that she had Oliver's robes in her bag and she was going to return them to the bench, because then he'd ask why she had them in the first place, and then she'd have to tell him how, after making sure Harry was alright, she had stormed down to the boys' locker rooms with every intention of dragging Oliver out of the showers from where he was rumoured to be drowning himself, and then Cedric would ask why she would be so concerned about her captain, and she'd have no answer for him.

So instead, Katie shifted her bag so it swung behind her leg and said, "Oh, I was looking for, er, Fred and George. Have you happened to see them?"

"No, sorry," said Cedric. "But Oliver told me that your team went to visit Harry in the infirmary. That's where I'm going, myself. Want to come? Maybe the twins are there."

"Er, maybe not, I just - wait, Oliver?" Katie's cheeks flared red, and she pushed the bag further behind her back. "Is he here?" She stood on her tiptoes and peered over Cedric's shoulders.

"Yeah, he's looking for his robes," said Cedric. "He says he left them on the bench and decided he wanted to come back for them -"

"Oh, no," said Katie, her face burning up.

"Hm?"

"Nothing."

Cedric gave her a hesitant smile. He probably thought she was loony. Great.

"Well, I'll be going up to the castle now, if you want to come."

"I - sure -"

"Diggory!"

Katie inhaled sharply as Oliver stepped out of the locker room, looking very irritated. His wet hair was plastered to his face, and it looked darker than normal. He was frowning, but Katie thought that it still made him look rather handsome.

Would a frown or a smile look better on his face, she caught herself wondering?

"Are you positive you haven't seen my robes? I left them there two minutes ago -" Oliver appeared to spot her, and did a double-take. "Katie? What are you doing here?"

"She's looking for the twins," Cedric piped in. "And I'm sure that your robes weren't here when I came."

Oliver didn't hear Cedric, but he peered at Katie. "The twins? Didn't all of you go visit Harry?"

Katie began to back away. Her voice sounded very fake to her ears. "Oh, yes," she laughed, as if it had just occurred to her. "Yes, I'll go there right now. See you."

She swung her bag around and began to walk very quickly towards the castle, clutching her bag strap tightly. She closed her eyes as she walked - this was incredibly embarrassing; she couldn't very well reveal that she was the one who took his robes, because then she'd have to explain why she was there in the first place.

From behind her, she heard Oliver yell out, "Katie!" She turned around, wondering if one of the robes' sleeves was dragging on the ground or something. He was certainly giving her an odd expression, but she found out why a second later. "The infirmary's that way." He pointed in the opposite direction, and smiled a little at her.

Smile or frown? There was no contest. Definitely smile.

Katie hoped that he couldn't see how red her face was, or that he assumed it was because of the cold and not because of _a certain item in her bag_. But walking in the opposite direction meant that she was going to have to walk past Cedric and Oliver and again, and she couldn't have that, so she shouted something back about the girls' locker rooms and continued on her way.

A while later - because she had nowhere else to go unless she backtracked - she slipped into the girls' locker rooms, which were blissfully empty.

Katie frowned as she pulled Oliver's robes out of her bag. What had she been _thinking_? Acting like Oliver's mother or something - friends did not wash each other's clothes, and they certainly did not steal them!

"Stupid," she said aloud to herself. "Incredibly stupid."

She sighed and made her way to the showers. Well, if she had them with her, she may as well do something useful, at least until she was certain he and Cedric were gone so she could return them.

Katie spent the next fifteen minutes washing the smell out of Oliver's robes - which, she realized, did not smell that bad at all, because it just smelled like him - and washing her hair as well, which, to her mortification, still had bits of mud in it.

It figured, that she would have mud in her hair while talking to Oliver. It goddamn _figured_.

After his robes were washed and dried and smelled absolutely wonderful, Katie made the trip back to the boys' locker rooms. This time, they looked empty - the lights in the main part were off, though the shower lights were on. She supposed Oliver or someone forgot to turn them off.

Not knowing what else to do, Katie gently placed his bundle of robes back on the bench she'd found them on, and was patting herself on the back for successfully returning them without his finding out that she'd been the one to take them when she heard someone say, "Katie?"

She screamed.

The lights flickered on and Oliver himself stepped out of the doors to the showers, a very puzzled expression on his face. "What are you doing here?"

_Good question_, she thought as she desperately fumbled for an excuse. "I was - er - I just wanted to - I thought no one was in here-"

He stepped towards her. "Are those my robes?" He gestured towards the bench.

Katie's mouth dropped open as she struggled to suppress a blush down. "Um." She stared down at the robes, then, quick as a flash, picked them up and stuffed them under her arm. "No," she said, forcing a smile onto her face. "No. They're - er - mine."

Oliver gave her another odd look. "Katie."

"Huh?"

"You're wearing your robes."

Katie opened and closed her mouth. "Right," she said in a small voice. "Erm. Yes, these are yours -"

"Oh, so you found them?" he asked eagerly. "Where were they?" She couldn't read his expression, but that might have been because she could hardly look at him for longer than two seconds for fear of her face turning redder than the robes she held.

Katie cringed. There was really no way out of this one, was there? She began to inch backwards and said very quickly, "Um, well, the interesting thing is that I kind of took them." She saw the look on his face, and rushed to say, "I'm returning them now. Here."

She held the bundle of robes out to him. He didn't take it.

Instead, he regarded her with a slightly curious expression. "When?"

"Pardon?"

"When'd you take them?"

_This_ was, Katie thought venomously, why she hadn't wanted to return them when she'd seen him before. Because how was she supposed to explain that she'd come down to stop him from drowning himself because she cared about him? How was she supposed to tell him how she'd volunteered to come instead of the twins? How was she supposed to weave an acceptable excuse around the fact that she was utterly besotted with him and _that_ was why she'd come down to the locker rooms?

She couldn't.

She couldn't tell him.

Katie forced the robes into his arms and slung her bag over her shoulder. "I just did, after I visited Harry of course, and well - I found them and cleaned them up a bit. Thought you wouldn't mind, since they smelled a little - no offense - and I needed to wash my hair anyway, so I went to the girls' locker rooms, and that's where I washed them - don't worry, no one was in there but me -"

She stopped blabbering and took a deep breath. "Sorry that I took them." She turned and started to head towards the door, wondering if it was possible for her cheeks to burst into flames because it seemed highly probable at the moment.

A hand clamped down on her shoulder. "Hey, wait - thanks, Katie."

He sounded so close to her that Katie didn't dare turn around.

"For what? For stealing your clothes?"

Oliver was grinning. She could feel it; she didn't know how, but she just could, she could feel his smile and his eyes and his everything. "Well, yeah," he said. "That and for coming down to see me."

It was definitely possible to burst into flames. She was nanoseconds away from doing so.

"About that," she said shakily, turning in a half circle, "I didn't really -"

She cut herself off, because Oliver was smiling at her in a warm-and-nice-yet-unnerving way. "What?"

"Nothing," said Oliver in his warm-and-nice-yet-unnerving voice. He stepped very close to her. She could feel his heat, see the droplets of water falling from the ends of his hair. He reached out a hand towards her face and suddenly she could not breathe, could not move, could not anything - oh _why _did she have to fall for her Quidditch captain - and his hand was inching closer and she closed her eyes, wondering if this was her moment -

"You have mud in your hair."

Damn.

Katie opened her clear blue eyes and shakily crossed her arms as Oliver pulled out a small bit of mud from her hair.

"Thanks," she said gruffly. "I thought I washed it all out -"

She stopped talking very abruptly, because Oliver's hand had slipped onto her cheekbone. For a moment, the two were perfectly still and then -

"You look nice, Bell," he said softly, and she raised her eyes to meet his brown ones, her heart racing so quickly, she wasn't even sure it was beating anymore -

"With mud in my hair?" She tried to sound flippant or at least _normal_, but failed miserably.

Oliver chuckled, and took a step back, his warm fingertips leaving her skin. He swung his robes over his shoulder and turned towards his locker.

"You look nice no matter what," he elaborated as he waved his wand at his locker.

Katie had never been much for swooning, but she sure felt like she was doing exactly that at the moment. She didn't trust herself a second longer in Oliver's presence. She was going to - oh _Merlin_, she was going to turn into one of those "Madam Puddifoot" girls - what a nightmare that would be! She needed to get away right _now _before Oliver saw her making googly eyes at him -

She once more turned to leave. "Thanks. So do you," she said without thinking.

His response came out of the blue, just as she finished speaking. "Come with me to Hogsmeade next weekend?"

Katie froze and cautiously glanced over her shoulder. Oliver's hands were in his locker, evidently stuffing his robes in. He looked positively jittery as he swung the locker shut and faced her, eyebrow raised and loping grin on his face. _Well?, _his eyes seemed to be imploring. _How about it?_

She shook her head out of her nervous stupor. "Sure," she found herself saying. A large smile spread across her face. "I'd love to."

As Oliver broke into a grin even larger than hers, Katie vaguely thought that maybe she hadn't meant to steal his robes…

But she was sure as hell happy that she had.


End file.
